Chair's Report December 2018

Once again we are bringing the year to a close. In many ways 2018 has been a hectic year for NSW Police Legacy, having hosted over 60 local area lunches and providing more than 40 welfare checks each month to ensure the welfare of our older legatees. This year was also our biggest ever Blue Ribbon Ball, an event now seen as a hallmark event on the police calendar, not only for our beneficiaries and serving police, but also for our many corporate sponsors.

Last week we hosted our Annual Christmas Luncheon for all our Police Legatees, once again thanks to our many volunteers and supporters who helped us run buses from all across the state. Although Christmas is always a difficult time when you have lost someone, coming together as part of the Police Legacy family highlights the support we provide to each other during these times.

Unfortunately 2018 has also seen many new faces join the Police Legacy family, and even though we welcome you all with open hearts we know the price to be part of our family is extremely difficult to come to terms with. We hope we can support your journey and if we can assist in any way please let us know. Please keep us up to date with your contact details so we can stay in touch.

We look forward to our kids’ Christmas Party at Santa Spectacular, Rosehill Racecourse. This is the first year we have gone to the Spectacular and we look forward to the fun and games that the day will bring to all our young Police Legatees.

There is no doubt 2019 will bring its own challenges and joys throughout the year and we will embrace them all as they come. One important issue that was gleaned from our survey is that our serving police officers don’t know enough about the services and benefits we provide to our beneficiaries, so improved marketing in this area will be one of our major focuses for 2019. This will go hand in hand with increasing our regular payroll donations from serving officers to allow us to further expand on the services we offer. So please help us spread the word whenever you get an opportunity to speak to serving officers.

One of the challenges for some of our Police Legatees in 2019 will be the annual Kokoda Trek. The successful Police Legatees are (or at least should be!) in full training for the trek. We hosted our information night in November and there were some worried faces at the start of the evening, but all were eager and reassured after the comprehensive briefing by Aidan Grimes from Our Spirit. We wish them all good luck!

On behalf of the NSW Police Legacy Board, our Chief Operating Officer Elizabeth Svoboda, and all our staff members, we wish you all a Merry Christmas and a very happy 2019. Please note our office will be closed from 21 December and will reopen on 7 January 2019.

Merry Christmas,Gary Merryweather

Each year our police family grows. Help us ensure they are never in need.